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Blanchett launches star power

Sydney Theatre Company artistic directors Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton use a wooden switch to make a symbolic "switch on" of a massive solar array on the roof of STC's home base in Sydney. Photo: AFP

The stages of the Sydney Theatre Company will be illuminated by the biggest star of them all - the sun.

An array of 1906 solar panels on the roof of The Wharf on Sydney Harbour were switched on by the company's artistic directors actress Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton today.

The rooftop solar power system is the second largest in Australia and will produce enough energy to power 46 average homes.

It will provide up to 70 per cent of the company's power supply.

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After flipping a symbolic two-metre tall timber light switch, Blanchett said powering the company's heritage building with the sun was about more than generating electricity.

It's about bringing the building into the 21st century, she said.

"We were looking to reconnect the company to the city and we were looking to make it cutting edge again," Blanchett said.

"Andrew came up with a great idea and said, 'What if we bring it into the 21st century and make it green?"'

Upton said the solar panels were a "gesture" to Sydney.

"I think we both sensed that this roof above our heads was a real resource because it is out there in the open and it is a very public roof ... it's a really key part of the city, on the harbour," he said.

With climate change an issue close to their hearts, the directors said the arts needed to address the issues faced by society, including global warming.

"If theatre doesn't engage with the big issues that face human beings and society generally, then it very quickly becomes irrelevant," Blanchett said.

"I think it's the arts' role absolutely to be a place where ideas are disseminated and discussed and thrown around and I think that, in terms of leading change, we are content providers, we're innovators, that's what we do as a sector.

"Hopefully [we can] inspire people to demand panels and it will reduce the cost of the panels."

The solar initiative is part of the company's Greening The Wharf program and is funded by the federal and NSW governments and The Shi's Family Foundation.

Dr Zhengrong Shi, founder and chairman of Suntech which supplied the panels used at The Wharf, said solar energy should be respected.

"This project demonstrates that anyone today can look up and harness nature's original source of energy and life," he said.